Rhonna Farrer

CHA Winter 2012 | May’s Early Picks

January 16, 2012 By May Flaum 4 Comments

I love this time of year, when new products, partnerships, and lines are announced, revealed, and otherwise unveiled to us. The weeks before CHA always make me excited to check blogs and watch the Scrapbook Update sneak peek page for items I’d missed. While I believe the real pre-show madness and peeks will truly get going this week, there are some strong offerings that have already been shown, and today I am here to share my top early picks.

Rhonna Farrer for My Minds Eye

At the very top of my list is a new partnership and lines that I am very eager to have. Rhonna Farrer has partnered with My Minds Eye to bring us her creative brilliance in a whole new way. With papers and amazingly detailed embellishments, Follow Your Heart by Rhonna Farrer is sure to be one of the show’s major hits.

There are two color schemes in the collection – ”Be Happy” and “Be Amazing.” As a long time fan of her work, I am very excited to see her designs staying in the paper realm. Many of these designs would work wonderfully with her existing digital designs available at www.rhonnadesigns.com. [Read more...]

Filed Under: CHA Tagged With: Coredinations, Jillibean Soup, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, My Minds Eye, Rhonna Farrer, Sizzix, The Crafter's Workshop, Tim Holtz

Noteworthy | 9.02.2011

September 2, 2011 By May Flaum 5 Comments

As we enter September the announcements and excitement is at fever pitch. Here at Scrapbook Update, Editor Nancy Nally has been busily restoring the site after a catastrophic server failure. While this week has been noteworthy around here for reasons we wish it wasn’t, the scrapbook industry is booming with wonderful things this week! Blogs are bursting with new inspiration as CHA released products hit shelves fast and furiously, new design teams are being formed, and so much more. Here are some of the most noteworthy items of the week:

Rhonna Farrer has been designing beautiful scrapbooking products for many years, and after House of 3 closed, I had hoped to see her branch out on her own. Over the summer she has offered some beautiful digital designs on her blog, and recently put out a call for design team members.

This week she announced her new creative team, and now her website has been re-designed and is open for business with digital designs perfect for digital or hybrid crafting. She announced the details of the new shop on her blog, and stressed that her goal is to uplift & inspire through digital designs and project inspiration.

Speaking of project inspiration, Hambly Studios posted a simple tutorial of how to use washi tapes to create custom banners. Finding a way to use multiple bits of the tape in such a different way is refreshing and I can’t believe I never thought of it! Expanding on their idea, I’m now inspired to punch or die cut shapes from paper that has been covered with tape. A second project using the technique was posted this week on Hambly’s blog on as well. I predict we’ll be seeing a lot of washi tape banners all around the internet!

This week Becky Higgins shared news and images of the new 2012 Project Life designs, Cobalt and Clementine. She shares many photos of the new product designs and promises that there is still a lot more to come. Last Friday she revealed the images of the new binders, and also announced that from now on the albums will be made by We R Memory Keepers.

They are absolutely a leader in binders and albums. And because they’re making our albums, this means you can expect nothing less than … the very best. I’ve been personally using We R binders for all of our family scrapbooks for nearly 10 years.

Higgins answers a lot about the new binders in her post, including the target date for availability late this year.

A new on-line event is coming the weekend of October 20-22. “Spawn of True Scrap” is now open for registration. The event features 17 instructors who each are bringing a new class (presented in video format), make ‘n takes, and more. The instructors include Jennifer McGuire, Nic Howard, Shimelle Laine, and many more – myself included. For more information or to register visit the Spawn of True Scrap site.

Die Cuts with a View announced that they are releasing a number of new paper pads through Michael’s. Don’t look for their name on the product though – it’s being released under Michael’s in-house brand name, Recollections. In the blog post, the company explained:

Basically, these stacks are designed & produced by us at DCWV and sold under Michael’s own private brand, Recollections. We were honored to be chosen to represent them in this way! To us, it means they love working with us as a company and they LOVE our designs What could be more flattering??

The first of the new paper designs are available now, with more designs coming in the next few weeks.

Finally this week, I will share some noteworthy new releases. Pink Paislee’s Nantucket and Phantom collections have been spotted on store shelves. Also in stores some of the new Doodlebug bakers twines and the bakers twine inspired “doodle twine” alphabet stickers that have been anxiously awaited by the Scrapbook Update staff and many others.

“Noteworthy” is a new regular weekly column at Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? Feel free to leave a comment, or if you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Becky Higgins, Die Cuts With a View, Hambly, Jennifer McGuire, Michaels Stores, Nic Howard, Pink Paislee, Rhonna Farrer, Shimelle Laine, Spawn of True Scrap

House of 3 Shutting Down

April 13, 2011 By Nancy Nally 8 Comments

In a move that surprised most in the scrapbooking world, House of 3 announced via their blog Monday that they are shutting down the popular scrapbook design collaboration.

House of 3 was founded in 2009 by Janet Hopkins, Heidi Swapp and Rhonna Farrer. The company originally sold only digital products through their website. At CHA Summer 2010, House of 3 expanded into paper production when it launched a licensed line of products with Pink Paislee. House of 3 has produced three total collections with Pink Paislee: Parisian Anthology launched at CHA Summer 2010, and Daily Junque & Soiree launched at CHA Winter 2011.

Co-founder Rhonna Farrer had already announced on her blog three weeks ago that she was departing House of 3. Following her departure, the remaining co-founders decided not to continue House of 3, resulting in Monday’s announcement.

The House of 3 website will be available through May 31st, 2011 so that the company’s digital customers may secure all of their purchased downloads. Their digital store will be holding a 50% off sale through May 8th so that House of 3 fans may make last-minute purchases before the company’s digital products are retired from public sale.

Paper forms of House of 3 products will continue to be available from Pink Paislee through 2o12. House of 3 designer Rhonna Farrer told Scrapbook Update that House of 3′s Pink Paislee released lines moving forward will be already created designs previously available only in digital from House of 3.

Disclosure

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Heidi Swapp, House of 3, Janet Hopkins, Pink Paislee, Rhonna Farrer

Pink Paislee to Market House of Three Collection

June 25, 2010 By Nancy Nally 3 Comments

Pink Paislee announced this week that they will soon be bringing to market the first line of physical products from digital design studio House of Three.

House of Three was founded in 2009 by well-known designers Janet Hopkins, Heidi Swapp, and Rhonna Farrer. Until now, the trio have been producing digital products in their signature retro/vintage style and selling them through their website.

The new House of Three collection for Pink Paislee will be called Parisian Anthology. It is being described by Pink Paislee as including “designer ink resist papers, brooch brads, polymer clear stamps, printed corrugate shapes, and several unique embellishments designed with crafters in mind.”

The two companies say they have been collaborating since early 2010 on the upcoming collection.

House of Three co-founder Janet Hopkins explained the group’s new venture into physical products:

Our customers have been requesting physical products from us ever since the inception of our digital site and we think now is a good time for us to infuse our vibe into a craft collection for retailers everywhere. We could not be more excited about this new venture!

Rebecca Cross, owner of Pink Paislee, is enthusiastic about the collaboration between the two companies:

We wanted to introduce their sophisticated “design district” style to the everyday scrapbook enthusiast. We are very excited about adding this Parisian inspired collection to our growing family of products and we welcome the chance to work with this extremely talented group of women!

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Heidi Swapp, House of Three, Janet Hopkins, Pink Paislee, Rhonna Farrer

My Hybrid Valentine

February 9, 2010 By May Flaum 4 Comments

With less than a week before Valentine’s Day it would be easy to admit defeat and not do anything special for loved ones, but before you do that I ask that you reconsider and instead try working some hybrid magic. Hybrid crafting, or incorporating digital products into your paper crafting, is becoming more popular, and I remain a big fan!

Before you worry about Photoshop and your lack of digital know-how, let me tell you my favorite trick: I open up Microsoft Word, insert the images I want to use, resize them as needed, and click print. In under five minutes, you can be on your way to paper bliss.

For the projects shown here, I used the lace border set, word art kit, and the backgrounds kit by Rhonna Farrer at House of 3. I really like all of her 2010 Valentine releases, but these products were the ones I knew I could use over and over for sure. After selecting these products to work with, I decided I wanted to pick one other main element to work with: doilies. They have long been a favorite of mine, and lately they seem to be coming back into fashion. So I dug into my stash and pulled out a package.

I printed a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 patterned paper (parts of which can be seen peeking out from my folded doily) in addition to printing out the valentine sentiment on a sheet of vellum. I also inked my folded doily (with worn lipstick distress ink) to add some color and detail before I stitched on the vellum sentiment on the bottom and two sides. Doing this created a pocket and secured the vellum. Now I can tuck love notes inside and give it away!

I liked my folded doily pocket idea so much that I made a second one. This time, I used it as a gift card holder and I added some accents as well. A major selling point for digital products like this word art kit is that I can use it for cards or other items I need to make multiples of with ease.

If you find an idea that works well, why not stick with it? I decided to try and convert my basic idea to a traditional card format:

I used a piece of patterned paper (digital – printed onto white cardstock) as well as some rhinestone brads and pink tulle for this simple card, and I’m happy with the results. None of these projects would take more than 15 minutes to recreate, and they are really budget friendly as well.

Of course my true test of digital products like these that are so strongly themed is “can I use it for other stuff too?” and the answer here is a huge yes! To show you what I mean, I’ve created this layout (doily and all!) to illustrate my point:

I re-colored the patterned paper (pink one) and then layered on some brushes and one of the fabulous word art titles as well and printed onto cardstock. I trimmed off the excess paper (to a finished size of about 8×8) and placed it on a sheet of die cut patterned paper from The Girls’ Paperie. From there it was fun and easy – just adding some stitching, a few fun accents, my doily, bits of patterned paper left over from my digital printouts, and before I knew it I had a layout all finished.

For your boyfriend or mom, favorite aunt or dear friend, any project you put a few minutes of hand crafted love into is sure to be well received. If you make the most of your paper stash and combine a bit of digital goodness you can have unique cards, layouts, home decor, and so much more in less time than it would take to watch your favorite TV show.

Before I head off to make some more love inspired creations I have some more digital product suggestions to check out this Valentine’s Day:

Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals has been prolific in her offerings this year. A favorite pick of mine is these lovely photo masks.

Melissa Esplin has a font called Classy Cupid that I’ve fallen in love with.

Betsy Tuma has a free kit available at Two Peas that’s perfect for so many love filled projects.

Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals has these love embellishments that would be fantastic for so many projects and layouts.

I hope you too embrace this opportunity to spread happiness and love to all those that mean the most to you. If you’re interested in learning more about working digital scrapbook products into your traditional scrapbook pages, I invite you to check out my on-line six week workshop that starts in just two weeks at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Until next time – happy {hybrid} crafting!